Städel Museum

The Städel Museum, an 1878 Neo-Renaissance building by German architect Oskar Sommer, is dominating a stretch of cultural institutions with an eclectic formality. It fuses art, architecture, landscape, and light integrated in a recent expansion.

In 1815, the merchant and banker Johann Friedrich Städel of Frankfurt set forth in his will that his "sizeable collection of paintings, engravings and art objects [be dedicated], along with as much of [his] fortune as remains at the time, to the foundation of a special, autonomous art institute bearing [his] name to provide the best for this town and its citizens”, thus laying the cornerstone for one of Germany’s oldest art museums, the Städelsches Kunstinstitut. In keeping with the wishes of its founder, this art institute was to encompass not only a collection to which the public would have access, but also a facility for the education of each new generation of artists – the present-day Städelschule.

The Städel Museum shows important artworks testifying to seven hundred years of European art history under a single roof. Outstanding paintings dating from Middle Ages to the present are enhanced by choice sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs. They invite visitors on a journey in time through the history of art and bring the everyday culture, society and history of the different eras back to life.